Clutch QBs: Fajardo, Evans, Adams
All three began the year as backups but they have answered the call
Cody Fajardo, Dane Evans and Vernon Adams Jr. have made 2019 the year of the backup Canadian Football League quarterback.
All three began the season as backups but when opportunity knocked they answered the call and have become emerging CFL stars heading into the playoffs.
“That’s the beauty of sports, you don’t really know what you have until these guys get an opportunity to show what they can do,” said Khari Jones, the Montreal Alouettes’ rookie head coach and a former CFL quarterback. “I know how hard it is, how much you have to do to even be halfway successful.”
Fajardo, Evans and Adams all got their chance to play due to injury. They’ve led their teams — Saskatchewan, Hamilton and Montreal, respectively — to a combined 38-16 record with the Tiger-Cats (CFL-best 15-3 mark) and Roughriders (13-5) finishing first in the East and West. Montreal (10-8) is in the post-season for the first time in five years and will host Edmonton in the East semifinal on Sunday.
Fajardo came in and was 12-4 as the starter, resulting in Saskatchewan trading Zach Collaros to Toronto in July before the Argos dispatched him to Winnipeg last month.
Fajardo, 27, who’d been a backup previously with Toronto (2016-17) and B.C. (2018), threw for a CFL-high 4,302 yards with a stellar 71.5 per cent completion average. The Riders rewarded him in October with a two-year contract extension and last week Fajardo was named the team’s outstanding player nominee.
Hamilton’s historic season — the 15 wins are a single-season club record — appeared in jeopardy July 26. Starter Jeremiah Masoli, the East Division’s top player last year, suffered a season-ending knee injury in a 2315 home win over Winnipeg.
That forced Hamilton to look to Evans, a second-year player with one CFL start under his belt. The Ticats were 5-1 with Masoli, their undisputed offensive leader who’d thrown for 1,576 yards and nine TDs while scoring four himself.
Evans, 25, lost his first start of ’19, a 24-19 road decision to Fajardo and Saskatchewan on Aug. 1. But he led Hamilton to five straight wins and 9-of-10 overall before backups Hayden Moore and David Watford guided the Ticats past Toronto 21-18 on Saturday night to finish the regular season 9-0 at Tim Hortons Field.
The six-foot-one, 218-pound Evans threw for 3,754 yards with 21 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He added 161 yards rushing (4.7-yard average) with three TDs.
Hamilton’s Orlondo Steinauer, who tied the CFL record for most regular-season wins by a first-year head coach, said the Ticats were quick to support Evans. “Quarterback is by far the hardest position to play,” Steinauer said. “You have to please everybody and we have some guys who want the ball, which is great. But they’ve supported him, they’ve given him grace. Tommy (offensive co-ordinator Condell) has given him grace. He’s not going to play perfect (but) I haven’t seen repeated mistakes.”
Adams twice he contemplated retirement after stints with Montreal (2016), Saskatchewan (’17) and Hamilton (’18), which tried converting the five-foot-11, 200-pound quarterback to receiver.
Adams Jr. re-signed with Montreal in ’18 after leaving Hamilton. He began the year as the Alouettes’ backup but replaced injured starter Pipkin in the club’s season-opening 32-25 road loss to Edmonton, completing 7-of-10 passes for 134 yards with a TD and interception.
Adams was 10-5 as the starter, guiding Montreal to second in the East and double-digit victories for the first time since 2012. He was named the Alouettes’ outstanding player nominee (3,942 yards passing, 24 TDs, 394 rushing yards, 12 TDs).
“He’s just a winner,” Jones said.
“That’s one thing you want to be known as a quarterback, a guy who finds ways to win games.